PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- Holidays can be a slow time for restaurants. With restrictions in place, many are already serving less customers. For Craig Gross, managing partner of Patriot's Bar and Grill in Palm Harbor, seeing customers on Memorial Day was meaningful for a few reasons.

“I think it's really appropriate that we're busy today, on Memorial Day, because I just feel like my son is smiling down from heaven,” Gross said.

Gross is a Gold Star father. His son, Frankie, was killed in an IED explosion in Afghanistan in 2011. His photo is displayed in the dining room. 

“He has sacrificed his life for every American. Every man, woman, boy and girl that gets up every morning and enjoys their freedom. My son had something to do with that, and he always will,” Gross said.

The restaurant, within Tarpon Woods Golf Club, was operating under a different name, but it closed for two weeks in March then re-opened as Patriot’s Bar and Grill. Gross says they re-opened during the same time restrictions were put into place for restaurants.

“We opened when it was mandated for take-out only,” Gross said.

He says they continued working and relied on take out orders until they could welcome customers again in May. He says the organization Concerned Veterans for America, out of Tampa, bought 400 gift cards for first responders and that helped them make it through.